Page 14 of Virelai’s Hoard (The Dagger & Tide Trilogy #1)

Calla tilted her head. It wasn’t like Thorian to question her.

Was he getting cold feet? “Of course I’m sure,” she said.

“What’s the alternative? I let the sea claim me without a fight, and abandon the crew to fend for themselves?

For all we know, the waters will turn on them as soon as I step foot off this deck.

They sure seem to rage harder against all the other ships out there.

Whichever way this goes, I can’t leave them without a failsafe.

The gold will be enough that they never have to sail again if they don’t want to. ”

A muscle twinged in his jaw. “They can drown for all I care. The Heart could be dangerous. For you . We don’t know if it really does what they say it does, or what price it might ask for using it. I know you don’t like it, but–”

“It’s not a matter of liking it.” Calla bristled.

Then she forced herself to draw in a long, slow breath.

Of course he didn’t get it. He could just walk around the crew, even walk around Varethian ports, and no one held his nature against him, because he wasn’t kin with the sea, and he was big enough that people thought twice before looking at him wrong.

If the crew got a whiff of what she was, she’d be dead by morning.

But that was beside the point. “It’s been getting worse,” she confessed, her shoulders drooping.

“I can barely sleep anymore, and when I do, it’s restless.

I get visions of the water, chaining me, claiming me-”

“Those are called dreams , Calla,” Thorian said, though the look on his face was pitiful. “Maybe you just need to wear your skin more. Go for a swim.”

“That thing ,” Calla’s lip twitched in disgust, “is just waiting to take over me. One of these days I’ll wear it and it will refuse to let go of me. I refuse to let it consume me without a fight. And if the Heart doesn’t work, at least the crew will have been taken care of before I succumb to it.”

“Fucking screw the crew, Calla. Why do you care so much about people who would hate you if they knew who you are?”

Calla gave him a look. “If this goes well, they never have to know.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then at least I tried.”

A knock on the door startled them both. They exchanged a look, then Calla went to open the door. It was Pip.

He straightened his back and lifted his chin as they both set eyes on him. “Captain!” he greeted, barely containing his excitement. “Merrow told me to tell you we’re here, and he wants you on deck.”

The words barely had time to settle in the air between them before he kicked off down the corridor.

After he rounded the corner, distant yells of, “We’re here!” and “The Drowning Vortex!” followed in his wake.

Calla looked back at Thorian. “Are you with me?”

He scoffed. “Always.”

Calla’s heart hammered in anticipation as they left her quarters, after a last lingering look towards the locked chest. She focused on the sound of their boots thudding against the wood planks, pushing away both her worry and anticipation.

When her crew looked at her, they needed to see only calm determination.

Confidence. The self-assuredness of someone who knew where she was leading them and exactly what to do if disaster struck.

The deck bustled with activity in the low light of dusk, the deckhands working to turn on the lamps and secure the sails as the Moonshadow slowed her way across the waters.

Merrow stood at the bow, leaning dangerously past the railing as he stared down at the vast expanse of the sea surrounding them.

Eryx, close at his elbow, had their arms overflowing with parchments, a compass clutched in one hand, and a sextant in the other.

They shot Thorian a grateful smile as he brought them a barrel to rest the maps and instruments on.

The compass remained open in their hand, though, as Merrow asked for frequent updates on the movements of the needle and gave Sable detailed instructions on where to steer them.

Calla approached the old man only once he stepped away from the bow, seemingly satisfied.

“Is this it?” she asked, peering at the open water.

The skies were darkening, only the strongest stars shining down on the Moonshadow. Despite the clear, crisp air, allowing visibility for miles and miles around them, there was nothing but water to be spotted at any which point. At least the sea was calm tonight.

Merrow lifted his head to the sky, and Eryx leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Nodding to himself, the old man said, “This is it. Just in time.”

To prove his words, Eryx angled their compass towards Calla.

It was spinning wildly.

Eryx wasn’t looking at the compass, though, but somewhere off in the distance, a frown wrinkling their eyebrows. “We should be careful here,” they said. “The sea is holding her breath, but not for long. A storm is coming.”

The confidence of their statement made Calla’s skin prickle.

Ignatius scoffed at Sable’s side. “What would you know about storms, greenhorn?” Then, muttering to himself, “Barely done sucking at your mother’s teat and warning us about storms on the clearest sky I’ve ever seen. Pah .”

Eryx frowned, but kept silent as some sailors gave them mocking smiles.

The more stars revealed themselves in the clear sky, the quieter everything became.

Gentle waves turned to ripples, the wind quietened to a breeze, clouds slowly dissipated from the sky.

Goosebumps erupted up Calla’s arms. Through her boots and the Moonshadow’s deck, she felt a change in the currents, slow and lazy and dangerous like a deep-sea creature stirring from its depths.

“What makes you think there’s going to be a storm?” Calla asked. She felt it in her bones that there was something about their words, but she needed more than that.

Eryx’s frown deepened. “The stars… they’re too sharp. They shouldn’t be this bright.”

That wasn’t anywhere good enough, but, despite that, Calla couldn’t shake her dread.

She turned to Gadrielle. “Instruct the deckhands to secure the deck,” Calla said, to the surprise of the others. “Lash down any barrels, crates, and tools. Check the rigging, but leave the sails.”

To her credit, Gadrielle didn’t hesitate to spring into action. “Aye, captain!”

This wouldn’t be enough to prepare for an upcoming storm, Calla knew as well as everyone else on deck, but it was something . Eryx gave her an acknowledging nod.

“We should be worried about the sea, not invisible storms,” Sable said, her knuckles going white as she gripped the helm.

“If we’re at the center of the Vortex, the currents beneath the water could form a whirlpool large enough to swallow us, and no amount of preparation is gonna get us out of that .

” The first mate set a challenging gaze on Calla.

“Do we really have to test the sea’s patience for a legend?

What can the skies tell us here that they can’t tell us a few leagues away? ”

If I knew that, we wouldn’t be here .

“The instructions were abundantly clear about the time and place,” Merrow said mercifully. “When the Crown glitters above Nereus’ brow, the sea will show you the way.”

Instead of being reassured, Sable and Ignatius only looked more puzzled.

“ Riddles? ” Sable’s face scrunched incredulously.

“How are we even sure this is the right place?” Maren asked, approaching the group. “Who is Nereus ?”

Calla threw him a side look. He should’ve been securing the deck with the other deckhands, but he must’ve slipped Gadrielle’s notice. She’d have to have a talk with her boatswain after this.

“The Drowning Vortex,” Merrow explained, distracted as he asked Eryx for a telescope and pointed it to the sky.

A splatter of brightening stars decorated it by now.

“Also known as the Eye of Nereus. The Crown is a seven-star constellation that only lines up with the Vortex roughly every two and a half years. We are right where we’re supposed to be. ”

“Look!” Pip shouted, on the tips on his toes as he leaned against the railing. “The water!”

Most of the sailors, dubious and reluctant, joined Pip at the railing. A few soft gasps, followed by indistinct murmurs. Once Calla walked up to them, she understood.

Everything stilled around them until Calla’s own breath was too loud to her ears.

The surface of the water was so clear it reflected the starlit sky above it like a mirror.

Calla gripped the railing tightly. As she stared into its depths, her head swayed, as if she was going to fall in at any moment and float, endlessly, into space.

She couldn’t tell anymore where the water ended, and the sky began.

From the corner of her vision, Ignatius stumbled away, gripping Nyxen’s shoulder to regain his balance. “This… this is not right ,” Ignatius sputtered. “Captain! We need to leave . Forget this foolishness.”

“ Quiet ,” Merrow hissed, unlike himself, his telescope still aimed at the sky. “The Crown is revealing itself.”

Calla didn’t need to raise her eyes to the sky to see it, nor strain to recognize it.

She could’ve skipped entire fortnights pouring over maps and navigational manuals in a study of the constellations, because as the seven stars revealed themselves one by one, they became so bright on the mirrored water that all the other stars faded away.

“Eryx! What do you see?” Merrow asked with urgency.

Eryx approached the railing at Calla’s elbow.

At first, Calla could only see the individual stars, bright on the water’s surface. And then… space itself seemed to warp and distort, joining the sky and sea close together. The shining lights weren’t seven anymore, but fourteen. As they shone, small lines connected each to the next.

“It’s…” Eryx whispered softly next to her, then darted away just as everyone else saw it too.

“It’s the island!” Pip shouted.

“Virelai’s island…” Riley murmured next to him, transfixed. “It’s real?”

Eryx came back, a blank parchment gripped in their hand as they started scribbling furiously.

“What is that?” Gadrielle asked, squinting at the reflection. “It looks like a tooth. A peak?”

“No, no!” Kittredge shook her head. “It’s a… a horn-like spire, clearly! See over there?”

“There’s a river running straight through it.”

“What’s the island shaped like? Seems like a crescent moon.”

“That bay. It’s the entrance. We aim for that once we find it.”

Everyone was chiming in now, voices and theories blending together in a cacophony of noise, the only sound disturbing the quiet of the Drowning Vortex.

Then, as suddenly as it started, everything shifted back into place, along with the reassuring presence of gravity holding Calla’s feet steadily planted on deck.

“Did you get it?” Calla asked Eryx, pulling them to the side.

“Captain,” Merrow called from somewhere further away.

Eryx looked down at the parchment in their hands, studying their surprisingly even lines through the faint light of the lamp near them. “Yes, I think so.”

“ Captain! ” Merrow gripped her shoulder, making Calla jump.

“What?!”

“Brace yourself!”

Just as the words left his lips, the first burst of wind tore through the rigging, making the sails groan.

The lantern nearby swung wildly, its light flickering before being snuffed out.

Calla’s heart raced as waves slapped against the hull, the once glassy surface now churning with fury.

And the stars were gone. Angry black clouds gathered in their stead, throwing a blanket of darkness over the Moonshadow.

Somewhere on deck, someone screamed.